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About the NYC ADA suits…

You know, I like to make fun of NYC because no businesses there are ADA compliant. There are so many stores and restaurants jammed into building spaces that weren’t originally designed for their current purpose. And I expect that there are plenty of inspectors that are either too overworked or paid off to allow these businesses to open without meeting some minimum of what people outside NYC would consider “safe”. You would think that local building codes would have handicap accessibility rules (and they do), but like every other liberal bastion, they just ignore the inconvenient rules.

NYC ADA lawsuits–

Note: Xmas posted a similar remark before I sent this one in, but for what it is worth–

A couple of years ago, I commented here (possibly on a thread about California ADA abuses), that I was surprised to see small eateries in Manhattan and nearby that did not meet ADA standards, and asked if any reader could explain what looked like a cultural difference.

One reader suggested that the Federal ADA (as distinct from California’s) did not require impossibilities: if a small building in a crowded neighborhood simply could not be altered enough to fit ADA, the punitive provisions of the law did not apply.

Now, however, the disease seems to have spread to NYC.

Reply to Xmas–

This is not a matter of overworked or bribed building inspectors. ADA does not require or empower building inspectors. But why did the predatory lawyers take so long to appear?

Incidentally, it the NYC subway were required to meet ADA standards, the city would collapse

Allowing people to sue for vague things like internet accessibility or building code stuff is just asking for extortion.
What in the world “lack of captions” for porn is this in reference to? You don’t watch porn for the scintillating dialog. Just assume a caption that says “moaning” and you are good.

California has long led the way in assembly-line filing of ADA suit against bricks-and-mortar businesses for a very straightforward reason. California’s Unruh Act entitles complainants to statutory damages in the thousands for discrimination complaints about in-person service, on top of legal fees. In other states, what is typically available is some combination of legal fees and individualized damages that might need to be proven, and which might not be proven to exceed a nominal sum in the ordinary case.

Florida has long been the second most active state for these bricks-and-mortar claims, while New York has been more active than most. In the case of website accessibility claims, lawyers will also look to the particular stance taken by the state courts or federal circuits where they intend to file. Because web accessibility law is unsettled and has not been made uniform by the Supreme Court, the legal standards may vary substantially from place to place, even though a federal law is driving the process.

I have never heard of local building codes or inspections playing a major role in promoting or discouraging local ADA filing mill activity. Not to say there couldn’t be some link, just that I’ve never heard of one.